The Theory Of Social Action

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A Theory of Social Action

Author : R. Tuomela
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9400963173
Total Pages : 544 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis A Theory of Social Action by : R. Tuomela

Download or read book A Theory of Social Action written by R. Tuomela and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is somewhat surprising to find out how little serious theorizing there is in philosophy (and in social psychology as well as sociology) on the nature of social actions or joint act. hons in the sense of actions performed together by several agents. Actions performed by single agents have been extensively discussed both in philosophy and in psycho~ogy. There is, ac cordingly, a booming field called action theory in philosophy but it has so far strongly concentrated on actions performed by single agents only. We of course should not forget game theory, a discipline that systematically studies the strategic interac tion between several rational agents. Yet this important theory, besides being restricted to strongly rational acting, fails to study properly several central problems related to the concep tual nature of social action. Thus, it does not adequately clarify and classify the various types of joint action (except perhaps from the point of view of the agents' utilities). This book presents a systematic theory of social action. Because of its reliance on so-called purposive causation and generation it is called the purposive-causal theory. This work also discusses several problems related to the topic of social action, for instance that of how to create from this perspective the most central concepts needed by social psychology and soci ology. While quite a lot of ground is covered in the book, many important questions have been left unanswered and many others unasked as well.

After Parsons

Author : Renee C. Fox
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 1610442156
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis After Parsons by : Renee C. Fox

Download or read book After Parsons written by Renee C. Fox and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2005-08-25 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Esteemed twentieth-century sociologist Talcott Parsons sought to develop a comprehensive and coherent scheme for sociology that could be applied to every society and historical epoch, and address every aspect of human social organization and culture. His theory of social action has exerted enormous influence across a wide range of social science disciplines. After Parsons, edited by Renée Fox, Victor Lidz, and Harold Bershady, provides a critical reexamination of Parsons' theory in light of historical changes in the world and advances in sociological thought since his death. After Parsons is a fresh examination of Parsons' theoretical undertaking, its significance for social scientific thought, and its implications for present-day empirical research. The book is divided into four parts: Social Institutions and Social Processes; Societal Community and Modernization; Sociology and Culture; and the Human Condition. The chapters deal with Parsons' notions of societal community, societal evolution, and modernization and modernity. After Parsons addresses major themes of enduring relevance, including social differentiation and cultural diversity, social solidarity, universalism and particularism, and trust and affect in social life. The contributors explore these topics in a wide range of social institutions—family and kinship, economy, polity, the law, medicine, art, and religion—and within the context of contemporary developments such as globalization, the power of the United States as an "empireless empire," the emergence of forms of fundamentalism, the upsurge of racial, tribal, and ethnic conflicts, and the increasing occurence of deterministic and positivistic thought. Rather than simply celebrating Parsons and his accomplishments, the contributors to After Parsons rethink and reformulate his ideas to place them on more solid foundations, extend their scope, and strengthen their empirical insights. After Parsons constitutes the work of a distinguished roster of American and European sociologists who find Parsons' theory of action a valuable resource for addressing contemporary issues in sociological theory. All of the essays in this volume take elements of Parsons' theory and critique, adapt, refine, or extend them to gain fresh purchase on problems that confront sociologists today.

The Explanation of Social Action

Author : John Levi Martin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199773440
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis The Explanation of Social Action by : John Levi Martin

Download or read book The Explanation of Social Action written by John Levi Martin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Explanation of Social Action is a sustained critique of the conventional understanding of what it means to "explain" something in the social sciences. It makes the strong argument that the traditional understanding involves asking questions that have no clear foundation and provoke an unnecessary tension between lay and expert vocabularies. Drawing on the history and philosophy of the social sciences, John Levi Martin exposes the root of the problem as an attempt to counterpose two radically different types of answers to the question of why someone did a certain thing: first person and third person responses. The tendency is epitomized by attempts to explain human action in "causal" terms. This "causality" has little to do with reality and instead involves the creation and validation of abstract statements that almost no social scientist would defend literally. This substitution of analysts' imaginations over actors' realities results from an intellectual history wherein social scientists began to distrust the self-understanding of actors in favor of fundamentally anti-democratic epistemologies. These were rooted most defensibly in a general understanding of an epistemic hiatus in social knowledge and least defensibly in the importation of practices of truth production from the hierarchical setting of institutions for the insane. Martin, instead of assuming that there is something fundamentally arbitrary about the cognitive schemes of actors, focuses on the nature of judgment. This implies the need for a social aesthetics, an understanding of the process whereby actors intuit intersubjectively valid qualities of complex social objects. In this thought-provoking and ambitious book, John Levi Martin argues that the most promising way forward to such a science of social aesthetics will involve a rigorous field theory.

Society in Action

Author : Piotr Sztompka
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226788159
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (881 download)

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Book Synopsis Society in Action by : Piotr Sztompka

Download or read book Society in Action written by Piotr Sztompka and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1991-08-27 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Society in Action, Piotr Sztompka sets forth a highly topical contribution to central theoretical debates of contemporary sociology. Taking the idea and practice of collective mobilization as his theme, Sztompka argues that modern institutions, particularly of late, are characterized by an increasing awareness of collective empowerment. The most obvious concrete expression of this phenomenon, as Sztompka makes clear, is the rise of a diversity of active social movements such as those which dramatically transformed Europe in the 1980s, from the birth of Solidarity in 1980 to the 1989 "Autumn of Nations." Sztompka connects the interpretations of such collective activity to a wider grasp of the nature of social action. The result is a comprehensive and original theory of social change which focuses on the self-transforming influence on society of its members' striving for freedom, autonomy, and self-fulfillment. He develops his theory by means of a general concept of "social becoming," the roots of which he traces to the early romantic and humanist work of Karl Marx and his followers and to two influential sociological schools of today, the theory of agency and historical sociology. Sztompka situates his theory midway between the rigid determinism of social totalities and the unbridled voluntarism of free individuals. Social change, he demonstrates, can be understood neither as the outcome of individual actions taken alone nor as structurally determined actions. Instead, he confers upon social organizations and movements a "self-transcending" quality: they express human agency yet, by virtue of their active character, are quite often able to achieve unpredictable outcomes. Throughout his analysis of social movements and revolutions in history, Sztompka emphasizes the dynamics of spontaneous social change generated from below—a theoretical testimony to the rapid and fundamental social change in Eastern Europe in recent history. Against the fashions of postmodernist malaise, boredom, and disenchantment, his theory of social becoming expresses the possibility of emancipation, of change leading to positive gains. His work registers a belief in progress, not inevitably gained, but its attainment fully dependent upon the creativity and optimism of an active citizenry.

The Theory of Social Action

Author : Alfred Schutz
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis The Theory of Social Action by : Alfred Schutz

Download or read book The Theory of Social Action written by Alfred Schutz and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Social Action

Author : Seumas Miller
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521788861
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (888 download)

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Book Synopsis Social Action by : Seumas Miller

Download or read book Social Action written by Seumas Miller and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-11-26 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social action is central to social thought. This centrality reflects the overwhelming causal significance of action for social life, the centrality of action to any account of social phenomena, and the fact that conventions and normativity are features of human activity. This book provides philosophical analyses of fundamental categories of human social action, including cooperative action, conventional action, social norm governed action, and the actions of the occupants of organizational roles. A distinctive feature of the book is that it applies these theories of social action categories to some important moral issues that arise in social contexts such as the collective responsibility for environmental pollution, humanitarian intervention, and dealing with the rights of minority groups. Avoiding both the excessively atomistic individualism of rational choice theorists and implausible collectivist assumptions, this important book will be widely read by philosophers of the social sciences, political scientists and sociologists.

The Myth of Social Action

Author : Colin Campbell
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521646369
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (463 download)

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Book Synopsis The Myth of Social Action by : Colin Campbell

Download or read book The Myth of Social Action written by Colin Campbell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-07-09 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Myth of Social Action, first published in 1996, is a powerful critique of the sociology of the time and a call to reject the prevailing orthodoxy. Arguing that sociological theory had lost its way, Colin Campbell mounts a case for a new 'dynamic interpretivism' a perspective on human conduct which is more inkeeping with the spirit of traditional Weberian action theory. Discussing and dismissing one by one the main arguments of those who reject individualistic action theory, he demonstrates that this has been wrongly rejected in favour of the interactional, social situationalist approach now dominating sociological thought.

Toward a Structural Theory of Action

Author : Peter H. Rossi
Publisher : Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 1483288277
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (832 download)

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Book Synopsis Toward a Structural Theory of Action by : Peter H. Rossi

Download or read book Toward a Structural Theory of Action written by Peter H. Rossi and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Toward a Structural Theory of Action: Network Models of Social Structure, Perception, and Action centers on the concept of social structure, perceptions, and actions, as well as the strategies through which these concepts guide empirical research. This book also proposes a model of status/role-sets as patterns of relationships defining positions in the social topology. This text consists of nine chapters separated into three parts. Chapter 1 introduces the goals and organization of the book. Chapters 2-4 provide analytical synopsis of available network models of social differentiation, and then use these models in describing actual stratification. Chapter 5 presents a model in which actor interests are captured. Subsequent chapter assesses the empirical adequacy of the two predictions described in this book. Then, other chapters provide a network model of constraint and its empirical adequacy. This book will be valuable to anthropologists, economists, political scientists, and psychologists.

A Theory of Social Action

Author : R. Tuomela
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9789027717030
Total Pages : 554 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis A Theory of Social Action by : R. Tuomela

Download or read book A Theory of Social Action written by R. Tuomela and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1984-09-30 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is somewhat surprising to find out how little serious theorizing there is in philosophy (and in social psychology as well as sociology) on the nature of social actions or joint act. hons in the sense of actions performed together by several agents. Actions performed by single agents have been extensively discussed both in philosophy and in psycho~ogy. There is, ac cordingly, a booming field called action theory in philosophy but it has so far strongly concentrated on actions performed by single agents only. We of course should not forget game theory, a discipline that systematically studies the strategic interac tion between several rational agents. Yet this important theory, besides being restricted to strongly rational acting, fails to study properly several central problems related to the concep tual nature of social action. Thus, it does not adequately clarify and classify the various types of joint action (except perhaps from the point of view of the agents' utilities). This book presents a systematic theory of social action. Because of its reliance on so-called purposive causation and generation it is called the purposive-causal theory. This work also discusses several problems related to the topic of social action, for instance that of how to create from this perspective the most central concepts needed by social psychology and soci ology. While quite a lot of ground is covered in the book, many important questions have been left unanswered and many others unasked as well.

Economy and Society

Author : Max Weber
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520035003
Total Pages : 1660 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Economy and Society by : Max Weber

Download or read book Economy and Society written by Max Weber and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 1660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Max Weber's Economy and Society is the greatest sociological treatise written in this century. Published posthumously in Germany in the early 1920's, it has become a constitutive part of the modern sociological imagination. Economy and Society was the first strictly empirical comparison of social structures and normative orders in world-historical depth, containing the famous chapters on social action, religion, law, bureaucracy, charisma, the city, and the political community with its dimensions of class, status and power. Economy and Status is Weber's only major treatise for an educated general public. It was meant to be a broad introduction, but in its own way it is the most demanding textbook yet written by a sociologist. The precision of its definitions, the complexity of its typologies and the wealth of its historical content make the work a continuos challenge at several levels of comprehension: for the advanced undergraduate who gropes for his sense of society, for the graduate student who must develop his own analytical skills, and for the scholar who must match wits with Weber. When the long-awaited first complete English edition of Economy and Society was published in 1968, Arthur Stinchcombe wrote in the American Journal of Sociology: "My answer to the question of whether people should still start their sociological intellectual biographies with Economy and Society is yes." Reinhard Bendix noted in the American Sociological Review that the "publication of a compete English edition of Weber's most systematic work [represents] the culmination of a cultural transmission to the American setting...It will be a study-guide and compendium for years to come for all those interested in historical sociology and comparative study." In a lengthy introduction, Guenther Roth traces the intellectual prehistory of Economy and Society, the gradual emergence of its dominant themes and the nature of its internal logic. Mr. Roth is a Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. Mr. Wittich heads an economic research group at the United Nations.

Structure of Social Action 2ed V1

Author : Talcott Parsons
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 556 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis Structure of Social Action 2ed V1 by : Talcott Parsons

Download or read book Structure of Social Action 2ed V1 written by Talcott Parsons and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Simon & Schuster, Talcott Parsons' The Structure of Social Action is a study in social theory with special reference to a group of recent European writers from the 20th century. Volume 1 of The Structure of Social Action is a must-read for those looking to understand Parsons' thinking of sociology and economics.

Contemporary Action Theory Volume 2: Social Action

Author : Ghita Holmström-Hintikka
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 9789048149155
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (491 download)

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Book Synopsis Contemporary Action Theory Volume 2: Social Action by : Ghita Holmström-Hintikka

Download or read book Contemporary Action Theory Volume 2: Social Action written by Ghita Holmström-Hintikka and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-12-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary Action Theory, Volume II (Social Action) is concerned with the philosophical and logical aspects of actions performed by several individuals or groups of individuals. The topics dealt with in this volume include collective attitudes (especially joint intentions), cooperation, social norms, and commitments. The contributors are leading experts in the philosophy of social action and artificial intelligence. No comparable collection of papers is currently available.

Liberalism and Social Action

Author : John Dewey
Publisher : Great Books in Philosophy
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Liberalism and Social Action by : John Dewey

Download or read book Liberalism and Social Action written by John Dewey and published by Great Books in Philosophy. This book was released on 2000 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this, one of Dewey's most accessible works, he surveys the history of liberal thought from John Locke to John Stuart Mill, in his search to find the core of liberalism for today's world. While liberals of all stripes have held to some very basic values-liberty, individuality, and the critical use of intelligence-earlier forms of liberalism restricted the state function to protecting its citizens while allowing free reign to socioeconomic forces. But, as society matures, so must liberalism as it reaches out to redefine itself in a world where government must play a role in creating an environment in which citizens can achieve their potential. Dewey's advocacy of a positive role for government-a new liberalism-nevertheless finds him rejecting radical Marxists and fascists who would use violence and revolution rather than democratic methods to aid the citizenry.

Social Action Systems

Author : Thomas J. Fararo
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313074119
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Social Action Systems by : Thomas J. Fararo

Download or read book Social Action Systems written by Thomas J. Fararo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-09-30 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fararo studies general theoretical sociology as a time-extended tradition with three phases: classical, postclassical, and recent. Employing a process philosophical approach, the author seeks to examine these three phases in an effort to provide a synthesis of the theories that seek to lay the foundations of theoretical sociology. The author especially focuses on the work of Talcott Parsons and George Homans, two contemporary theorists whose common aspiration was to forge a theoretical foundation for sociology that would serve to unify and integrate all theories growing out of sociological research in much the same way that the theory of evolution guides and integrates all other biological theories. To begin, the author provides a history and overview of the key classical theoretical frameworks from the perspective of process philosophy, which he applies to all three phases of the study. Fararo then carefully analyzes two major postclassical bodies of general theory, namely the evolving and intertwined frameworks of Parsons and Homans from their early theories of social systems to their later divergent perspectives on foundation and synthesis in sociological theory. Finally, the discussion turns to the recent phase of general theoretical sociology, where more recent foundation strategies -- rational choice theory and generative structuralism -- are analyzed in relation to the postclassical phase of the tradition. This important and sophisticated new work is essential for all those interested in sociological theory in particular and sociology in general.

The Structure of Social Action

Author : Talcott Parsons
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 844 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Structure of Social Action by : Talcott Parsons

Download or read book The Structure of Social Action written by Talcott Parsons and published by . This book was released on 1949 with total page 844 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory

Author : Talcott Parsons
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory by : Talcott Parsons

Download or read book Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory written by Talcott Parsons and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Explanation of Social Action

Author : John Levi Martin
Publisher : OUP USA
ISBN 13 : 0199773319
Total Pages : 411 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis The Explanation of Social Action by : John Levi Martin

Download or read book The Explanation of Social Action written by John Levi Martin and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-08-11 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why questions? What explanations? -- Causality and persons -- Authority and experience -- The grid of perception -- Action in and on a world -- A social aesthetics -- Valence and habit -- Fields and games -- Explanations explained